


The Lost Prince

by DeadlyChildArtemis



Series: Olivarry Week 2016 [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Olivarry Week 2016, also (eventually) featuring singing Rogues!, please imagine Joe West as a horse fighting Oliver
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 14:18:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7108696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadlyChildArtemis/pseuds/DeadlyChildArtemis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for olivarry week 2016. When the notorious Green Arrow steals the Crown of the Lost Prince from the royal castle of Keystone Kingdom, everyone is after him. Luckily, he stumbles upon a hidden tower and (his head) meets (the fist of) a lonely young man who wants to see the annual lightning storms on his 18th birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lost Prince

Olivarry week 1 fairy tale au

 

Ch. 1

 

The forest was thick and green in the late spring. The Green Arrow might be more appreciative of it if he weren't running for his life. He drew an arrow from the quiver on his thigh and shot one of the city guards in the chest, before vaulting over a fallen tree trunk.

He cursed loudly as several arrows thudded into the tree trunk behind him. Green Arrow could take on an entire army and win, but the goal of his mission had been to extract, not get noticed and destroyed. He had successfully extracted the item, but at the last second, the castle guard had caught sight of him and alerted the rest of the city militia.

He glanced behind himself as he grabbed a hanging vine to swing himself in a different direction. As expected, the new Hand of ARGUS and the Demon’s Daughter were on his tail, wearing city guard uniforms and metal helmets to disguise themselves from the real guards. It didn’t fool the Arrow, though. He’d recognize Lyla Michaels and Nyssa al Ghul any day.

Working together due to a shared goal (the re-recruitment/end of the Green Arrow and the retrieval of the item in the satchel), the two women had reluctantly put aside their organizations’ hostility towards each other and chased after him instead.

The Green Arrow zigzagged again and found that he had lost most of his pursuers, except for Lyla and Nyssa. He found himself approaching a steep cliff and pulled out a grappling hook. Working hand over hand, he quickly pulled himself up the cliff and free of his pursuers. He caught sight of the the two women stuck at the bottom of the cliff as he unhooked his grappling hook. Unable to resist the urge to grin, the Green Arrow gave them a short salute and ran off-

-Only to get slammed from the side by a black horse’s torso. Winded, it took the Green Arrow a moment to decipher the alarmed whinnying and the surprised shout of the horse and its rider. He peeled his masked face away from the thick fur of the animal, and briefly noticed a golden medallion hanging from the horse’s neck reading:

_Joseph_

_Property of Sir Edward Thawne_

_First Regiment_

The Green Arrow had no more time to think about that as the horse began to buck wildly, shaking from side to side and throwing its neck and legs about in an attempt at dislodging its unexpected rider.

The actual rider was a blond man wearing a helmet with a bright blue plume and lightly scratched metal armor, who was struggling to unsheathed his sword with his horse’s erratic movements.

“Calm down, Joseph!” The guard snapped, clutching the reins in one hand. “Masked thief, you are under arrest  by the- Whoa!- by the Esteemed Guard- Gah, heel, Joseph!- by the Esteemed Guard of the Gem Cities of Keystone Kingdom!”

The Green Arrow ignored the guard and tightened his arms around the neck of the horse. He would only get one shot at this. With a muttered, “Sorry,” he released one of his legs, swung to one side, then threw all his weight the other way, swinging himself up and around to the saddle, his foot neatly connecting with the Blond guard’s helmet. As the guard toppled off his horse with a  startled cry, the Green Arrow snatched up the reins and expertly snapped them.

To his eternal surprise, instead of reacting the way he expected the horse to, it instead skidded to a stop, shook itself once, and turned a 180 and began galloping in the other direction.

“What the- No, no, you stupid horse!” The Green Arrow hissed, tugging on the reins and squeezing his legs to try to get the horse to turn around.

“Oh, come on, Joseph! You’re going the wrong way!”

The horse bucked again at the word Joseph.

“Oh, what, don’t like your name? Turn around and I’ll call you Joe, goddammit!”

Surprising the Green Arrow even more, Joe the Horse actually slowed down, before veering off to the left by a few degrees.

“Alright, Joe!” The Green Arrow cheered. Off guard, he didn't expect the horse to suddenly stop and duck, throwing him into a tree. He hit his back hard and slid down, his head rubbing painfully against several tree knots before settling on a root.

Joe neighed, a braying motion that looked more like mocking laughter than a horse’s natural sounds. He darted forward, much faster than a normal horse, and snatched the strap of the satchel right off of the Green Arrow’s arm.

Dazed, he pushed himself off the ground before shouting out, “Hey, that’s my bag! Get back here!”

He pulled out his bow and an arrow and let loose a shot that skimmed right past Joe’s eye. The horse snorted and turned left, then immediately did it’s best to slow down quickly from its full gallop.

They had run right off the edge of a 50-foot cliff, standing precariously on a tree branch.

The Green Arrow darted forward sure-footedly, reaching for the satchel. The horse skittered another few paces away, it's neck stretched as far away as it could go.

The tree branch cracked. Both man and horse froze, Green Arrow’s arms still reached towards Joe’s neck.

“Alright, buddy,” he muttered. “Give me back my bag, and we can both get off this branch aliiiIIIIIIIAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEE!”

The branch snapped, and the Green Arrow clung to the Joe’s mane as they both fell towards the ground, screaming. Forcing himself to calm down and regain his senses, Green Arrow snatched his satchel back from the horse and braced himself. He hit the ground hard, smashing straight into a thick bush and throwing foliage everywhere. He took a moment to take stock of himself. He felt bruised badly, but no bones had been broken, a miracle. His bow had snapped, though, and his arrows had all been scattered. He grabbed a couple that were within reach and sat up, dazed, brushing off debris, before quickly ducking back down. The damn horse had somehow landed on its feet and was sniffing the ground like a bloodhound.

He crawled away, the crushed foliage making more noise than he wanted to. His back hit a moss-covered stone cliff, and he followed it, carefully plucking out twigs and leaves from his green outfit.

Suddenly, his hand met air where there was supposed to be stone. He peered closely at the missing section of wall. It was a secret passage, disguised perfectly with a set of hanging vines. _Perfect_. Careful not to disrupt the vines too much, he quickly made his way through the hidden tunnel.

 

Barry was left alone in his tower again. Father had gone to the city to buy him a birthday present. _As if he didn’t already know what Barry wanted._ Ever since he woke up in the tower, he had wanted to go to see the lightning storms that occurred every year on his birthday.

Sometimes, when Father was gone for an especially long time, Barry tried to remember his life before the tower. It was  something he only did when Father was far away, since he didn’t like Barry thinking too much about those first 11 years of his childhood.

It wasn’t like Barry remembered much, anyway. A woman’s face, maybe his mother, a spacious room, a couple of lessons with a couple of other children. When he had first woken up in the tower, Father-back then called Eobard- had told him that he had been taken to the tower for safety. The outside world was a scary place, filled with hardened men with pointy teeth, bloodthirsty beasts, and greedy people, some of which would do unspeakable things to a young boy like Barry if he wandered outside alone. Yeah, yeah.

It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything to do. He had his chameleon friend Iris, a small library of well-worn books, and plenty of chores and activities to spend his day on. Like cooking, messing with his chemistry sets, and running. Lots and lots of running. Father had set up a fancy machine in one room, with a thick tract that moved as he ran on it. Barry could spend hours just running in that room, especially when he dragged the machine over to the nearby window so it was like he was running towards the outside.

Right now he was having a conversation with Iris. As a chameleon, she was unable to speak, but they had a sort of understanding where she changed colors based on her reaction to her conversation. The best part about her was that he had to keep himself in Regular Time when talking with her, otherwise she wouldn’t understand and turn a bright yellow. Days always passed by faster when he was talking to Iris.

Suddenly Barry heard the sound of panting and grunting. The world slowed down. Was Father back home already? No, not possible. He said he’d be gone at least three days, headed to a coastal kingdom for some of Barry’s favorite food. Besides, he hadn’t called out to Barry. It was...someone else then. Barry almost couldn’t comprehend the thought. Another person, slowly climbing up the walls of his tower, some stranger he had never met, who’s _intentions_ he knew nothing about... Barry flew into a frenzy. He scooped up Iris and ran to the farthest room from the open window. Peeking nervously from behind a nearly closed door, he watched as a man dressed head to toe in green leather pulled himself up through the window, breathing heavily. The mysterious man had barely a second to look around before Barry zoomed forward and clocked him in the head.

As he stood over the unconscious stranger, Barry let the world around him speed up. With a foot, he nudged the man over and knelt down to observe him. The man wore a hood and an eye mask, obscuring any hint of an identity. He reached over to remove the mask, then paused. Was it rude to unmask someone? He had no idea, so instead, he just hauled the man to a chair and stuffed him into it.

Iris had crept back, curiosity clearly winning out over the caution Barry had given her. Noticing her, Barry picked her up.

“What should I do?” He asked her. Iris shrugged and turned a bright violet.


End file.
